Prosecutors: Would-be robber shot victim in 2009 slaying

Dennis Laird, 20

Cook County Sheriff's office

Dennis Laird, 20, who is currently serving time in prison for unrelated convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft, was charged in the fatal shooting of Andre Jamison on Aug. 25, 2009.

Dennis Laird, 20, who is currently serving time in prison for unrelated convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft, was charged in the fatal shooting of Andre Jamison on Aug. 25, 2009. (Cook County Sheriff's office)

By Staff report

A man who was 16 at the time tried to rob and then shot to death a man in the South Chicago neighborhood in 2009, then tried to get someone else to dispose of an incriminating bullet for him, prosecutors said today.

Dennis Laird, 20, who is currently serving time in prison for unrelated convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft, was charged in the fatal shooting of Andre Jamison on Aug. 25, 2009. The shooting happened about 11:40 p.m. in the 2600 block of East 87th Street, according to police and state records.

Laird, whose home address is in the 8200 block of South Dobson Avenue, was ordered held without bail in a hearing midday today.

Laird, who had a handgun, was on a block near 2600 87 th Street with another person with a gun a little before the shooting, and several people saw him leave the block with three people, prosecutors said.

Laird then walked up to Jamison and tried to rob him, but Jamison resisted, and then started running away, said Cook County state’s attorney’s spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Laird then fired several times, hitting Jamison twice in the back as he ran away.

At least one of the bullets from the gun did not hit Jamison, and before running away, Laird stopped and picked it up, prosecutors said.

Someone who had seen Laird leave the nearby block heard the gunshots from Jamison’s shooting, and saw Laird run back onto the block soon after. Laird told those he had been with on the block before that he had shot soemone, and went up to one person and tried to give them the bullet, but that person refused, prosecutors said. As police arrive soon after, Laird ran off, dropping the bullet to the ground, prosecutors said.

Police found the bullet, which matched the caliber of a round later taken from Jamison’s body, prosecutors said.

In the intervening years since the slaying, Laird told at least one other person that he had shot Jamison.

Investigators arrested Laird on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Laird is in prison in connection with incidents from the late winter and early spring of 2013. On Feb. 19, 2013, he was arrested on the block where he lived, 8200 South Dobson, about 4 p.m., on a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court and police records. He was charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun because he previously had been found guilty on a weapons charge after being arrested with a handgun Aug. 23, 2011, in Bessemer Park, 9000 S. Muskegon Avenue.

While Laird was out on bail in the February 2013 weapons charge, he was arrested March 29, 2013, in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue on a charge of theft of goods worth more than $500, according to court and police records.

The Chicago Cubs on Tuesday sought City Hall permission to expand construction hours at Wrigley Field, with bleacher work falling well behind schedule on the team's $375 million ballpark renovation project.